On My Mind: Your career progression isn’t just your responsibility

Colleagues,?

While scrolling on Twitter a few weeks ago, I saw a post from one of our journalists that caused me to pause, pick up the phone and call her.

Paraphrased, her tweet stated that 90% of people from her first TV job are out of news, 90% from her second TV job are out of news, and the same with her third job. She then asked a question that all managers should be asking themselves: How do you grow and retain talent??

Her question may have been rhetorical, but she captured the attention of the journalism Twitterverse and had mine too. Why are so many people leaving our industry — a career field many of us choose because we are called to its mission??

While there are several factors that make this a particularly difficult period in journalism, the truth is that the challenge we face isn’t contained to the newsroom. People are leaving their jobs, regardless of the field, at a much higher rate than we’ve seen before – across the company and the country.

Exit interviews reveal myriad reasons why people leave their jobs, but in the end, it can mostly be boiled down to one factor, and it’s something Lisa Knutson, president of Scripps Networks, says all the time:?People want to add value and be valued.

Almost two years ago, in an “On My Mind” just like this one, I tackled the subject of professional development at Scripps, writing:

“I encourage you to have regular check-ins with your leaders to share your professional desires and intents. I expect our people managers to foster your growth and to encourage you to look at opportunities within Scripps to move from station to station, division to division and to the corporate office … I encourage you to raise your hand, make your voice heard, and step up for a challenge.”

In that message to employees, I was putting the responsibility on you to raise your hand. Over the last several years, I’ve heard from many who have done so. But really, I can see now that I was missing an important point. It’s our job, as Scripps managers and leaders, to seek you out, engage you in an ongoing dialogue about where you want to be, support your development so you can get there, and then actually facilitate your career progression within Scripps. Our people managers need to be your advocates for career growth and development.

The good news is that our HR and business leadership teams have been diligently redeveloping the programs and infrastructure to better support this. But it is clear to me that new talent management processes and systems aren’t enough.?

The responsibility to grow and develop employees falls to every people manager in our company. It is their role to recognize the ambitions and talents of their team members — even if it means facilitating transition to a different department, a new television station and across divisions.

I can look back to several occasions during my career when I worked for managers who took little interest in my development and growth. And in each of those situations, I always left to pursue a better opportunity from someone else willing to give me the added responsibility and experience I was seeking. But I’ve also been very fortunate to work for leaders who fostered my growth, supported my development and pushed for my career to progress. Those leaders, mentors and sponsors were the difference-makers for me. And I expect Scripps’ people managers to be difference-makers for you.

Adam Symson (he/him)

President and CEO?